Monday, 30 January 2012

So, the Oscars nominations have been announced and I've somehow managed to miss a rather large amount of the anointed movies (The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Moneyball and War Horse), although some of these are yet to be released in the UK.

Of the films I named in my top eleven of last year, only three make the short list (although admittedly Black Swan featured in last years awards) but none of this comes as much of a surprise. I think "Drive" perhaps should have featured in "Best Director" or "Best Cinematography", but that never seemed likely to happen. "Marcy Martha May Marlene" however, definitely should have been acknowledged, along with it's star Elizabeth Olsen.

As an animator I'm pleased to see Andy Serkis has not been nominated for his motion capture work in "Rise of the Planet of the Apes." While Serkis is a fine actor and gives a great performance, a nomination would have denigrated all the hard work done by the animators who had to convert his movement into the physiology of an ape. Perhaps as this technology gains popularity there should be a separate category that acknowledges both actor and animators. For this reason I'm also relieved to see "The Adventures of Tintin" has not been nominated in best animation (although I found the film entertaining). If "Tintin" had been nominated "Best Animated Feature" then "Avatar" surely would have been eligible too.

The main category that seems way off is the "Best Documentary" which has a ton of great films that didn't get included. The shortlist does not include "The Interrupters", "Project Nim", "Senna", "George Harrison: Living in the Material World", "Life in a Day", "Being Elmo: A Puppeteers Journey" or "Tabloid."

Anyway, here's my very early guesses at what and who will win the major awards (predicted winners in bold, films I've seen in black, films I've not seen in blue). As there's many films I've yet to see, I've made my decisions based on general awards buzz and critical reaction.

Best Picture

The Artist

The Descendants

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Help

Hugo

Midnight in Paris

Moneyball

The Tree of Life

War Horse

Best Director

Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist

Alexdander Payne, The Descendants

Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris

Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life

Best Actor In a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn

Jonah Hill, Moneyball

Nick Nolte, Warrior

Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Max von Sydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Best Actressin a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo, The Artist

Jessica Chastain, The Help

Mellisa McCarthy, Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer, The Help

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Demian Bichir, A Better Life

George Clooney, The Descendants

Jean Dujardin, The Artist

Gary Oldman, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis, The Help

Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Animated Feature Film

A Cat in Paris, Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli

Chico & Rita, Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

Kung Fu Panda 2, Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Puss in Boots, Chris Miller

Rango, Gore Verbinski

Cinematography

The Artist, Guillaume Schiffman

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Jeff Cronenweth

Hugo, Robert Richardson

The Tree of Life, Emmanuel Lubezki

War Horse, Janusz Kaminski

Foreign Language Film

Belgium, “Bullhead”, Michael R. Roskam, director

Canada, “Monsieur Lazhar”, Philippe Falardeau, director

Iran, “A Separation”, Asghar Farhadi, director

Israel, “Footnote”, Joseph Cedar, director

Poland, “In Darkness”, Agnieszka Holland, director

Music (Original Song)

“Man or Muppet” from The Muppets, Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie

“Real in Rio” from Rio, Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown, Lyric by Siedah Garret.

From my predictions, "The Artist" should finish with the most awards (6), but we'lll have to wait and see. I'll hopefully reappraise my choices nearer the awards in late February when I've hopefully had time to see more of the films.